Come Christmas, I may have a pretty nice drink to give away: I tried this easy peasy recipe for Cherry Cordial. I've never made a drink before, though I remember jotting down a recipe for dandelion wine more than 10 years ago, but the cherry obsession that I found myself with called for the trying.

This recipe calls for 1 lb of tart cherries and 500ml of vodka (about 3 cups). Ever since I read Alton Brown's books, I must confess that I really prefer to weigh everything. It's a pity more recipes don't include the weights, I think things seems a bit more accurate that way. I'm very glad the digital scale I bought also weighs liquids in oz. and ml.

Seeing as I had just over 2 lbs of cherries to do something with today, I used a half pound to make another half batch of cherry cordial (rationalized not due to my excessive drinking, but the hopes that this would be so wonderful, I'd wish I'd made more to give away...) and then I canned the rest whole, pits still in, in 3 little pints.

I found how to do this on another good resource site for home canning: the National Center for Home Food Preservation or http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/. I was happy that I could minimize my work for the day by leaving the pits in. I rather like spitting out (and finding a place to spit out) the cherry pits...and it helps to keep track of how many I've eaten. I used my Mom's recipe for extra light syrup, however, which is 1 c. sugar to 1 quart of water. After all, I didn't really want too sweet cherries.

They looked so nice coming out of the hot water bath. I already fantasize about next February cracking one open and devouring them, remembering instantly the many hundreds I've devoured this July.

Next summer, I think I'll have to do this again. It's been a great week deciding what to do with cherry madness. And I'm so lucky to have the access to delectable fruit!

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Photo.

This is probably the most common sight around my table. My mantra, “if in doubt, make tacos”, is indelible writing on my soul. I’ve got to get around to asking @thesteelfarmer if they can repair my cast iron plancha that I cracked. I’m still using it imperfect, but I think about it every time I make tortillas. (Basically I think about it at least once or twice a week.). #tacosporvida #tacos #fridaynight #realfood #homecook

I got 7 boxes of books packed tonight, after deciding not to be overwhelmed standing in front of the first bookcase, acting like 45 days in a box was somehow going to separate me forever from those friends. I actually hadn’t held my 1972 Webster dictionary in quite some time, and it felt familiar and weighty. Classic in denim blue and gilded in gold, I wonder what words are in there that have somehow gone out of style with newer editions. I found a 1929 copy of Enough Rope by Dorothy Parker, and spent a quarter hour leafing through it, taking note of how someone had checked key poems. Coincidence? Maybe not. And a drawing of an eye twenty years old, on a post-it as a bookmark. Careful eyes may note the long strands of hair likely belonging to the girl who left it for me. (She recalled drawing it, but I felt like it was the first time I’d seen it, strange because I do have a good memory. It makes me wonder what else I’ve forgotten that collected books might reveal to me...) #packingbooks #books #dictionary #merriamwebster #dorothyparker

Workday bake. I always think I won’t be excited about a new loaf, but fortunately that experience has yet to hit me. Each one is like a new living thing, come to take up residence for a week. Let my epitaph be “if you have bread, you have dinner.” #bake #sourdough #bread #progluten #wildyeast #breadscoring #acaseofthetuesdays

I don’t come from a family that has photos all over our walls. There are a few, carefully placed, on my parent’s’ walls - mostly taken after grandchildren happened and babies and school pictures started creeping in. Our senior pictures hiding in cabinets, there if you’re really looking. Black and whites of grandparents lurking, but not obvious. Most of us are camera shy and that’s okay. I was so full of happiness at the sight of my family yesterday that I could barely stand it. And even happier that we were all enjoying the moment so much that nobody even took out a phone once and snapped a picture as proof. These memories, made the old-fashioned way, tend to linger in the brain pan the way fleeting social media pictures could never dream to do. Today before I had to drive back my mom lifted down the copy of the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook that she got (I think) as a wedding gift 45 years ago to show me a white cake recipe that she’d made recently that I tasted and loved. We didn’t have Joy growing up, we had this all-encompassing tome instead. My mom and I talked casually about the recipe and pictures in this book, how both of us have always wanted to make or even just eat petit fours, and how neither of us ever have made or eaten them. After she left the kitchen to get ready for church, I realized that I wouldn’t have a picture of my mother today, but I have this book and thousands of conversations. My whole lifetime of advice and the search for the best white cake recipes to embed in my memory. That all the beauty and generosity, the practicality and steadfastness my mom has, can be held in my hands if I want. My memory holds such a clear picture, and it won’t ever fade. #mothersday #betterhomesandgardens #homecook

I maybe omitted that when I made the Lillet spiked sabayon for @the_bojon_gourmet’s trifle I served at Easter, the first batch was cooked over a rigged situation that wasn’t ideal and I got water in the custard. I was so upset. So I separated another 8 eggs and began again with a better rigged situation. I froze the questionable sabayon, figuring that it was nothing if not exceptional ice cream base. I added heavy cream, and mixed toasted pecans. It’s ridiculously rich. It’s a velvet lounge coat that very nearly warms you up as you eat. 😍 #icecream #homemade #wastenotwantnot #glutenfree #frozencustard #wiscogirl